


A General Mess

by salanaland



Series: Skywalker Family Feels [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Leia Organa, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Leia is always a badass, Questionable culinary choices, Skywalker sass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23181145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salanaland/pseuds/salanaland
Summary: Another side of the most awesomest, asskickingest political-military-spiritual leader with the best hairstyles in the galaxy.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Skywalker Family Feels [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616419
Comments: 8
Kudos: 218





	A General Mess

"Did I just hear that girl call you _General_ Organa?" 

Leia looks up from her datapad and frowns. "She's not a _girl_ , she's _nineteen_ which is more than old enough--actually, scratch that. She's _far_ too young to be fighting in a war where she could get killed." Leia casts an eye around to make sure nobody sees her in the corner of the makeshift mess hall apparently talking to herself. 

"Hypocrite." The ghost of her father smiles fondly as he maneuvers himself into the chair across from her. 

"Runs in the family." Leia tries to hide a smile. "I'm sorry, I forget-- _how_ old was the hero of the Battle of Naboo? Nine?" She affects a puzzled look.

"The _real_ hero of the Battle of Naboo was _fourteen_ ," Anakin corrects her. "If your mother hadn't allied with the Gungans, there would have been nobody left by the time I shut down the battle droids."

Leia snorts. "Just call me Leia the Late Bloomer, then." 

Anakin smirks. " _General_ Leia the Late Bloomer."

"That'll do wonders for morale if that gets around." Leia attempts to eat a mouthful of today's special, Noodles With Mixed Emergency-Ration Sauce, but the noodles slither off her utensils and the sauce splatters unattractively onto her clothing.

"Can't a father take pride in his daughter's achievements?" Anakin asks, trying to nudge the wayward food back into the bowl, and succeeding only in tipping the bowl out. 

"Not when she's this much of a mess," Leia mutters, trying to blot the sauce with a napkin. "I hope nobody can see me right now."

"No, soldiers love it when their generals do normal things like eat with them," Anakin insists, holding his hand above a stack of napkins, which flutter fractionally. "We should switch seats so they can see you eat. Eating together is powerful."

"I can't exactly see you sitting at the table with a squadron of stormtroopers, helmets all lined up on the sideboard."

Anakin grimaces. "Eating was...not really a thing I could _do_. And certainly not something I wanted others to see."

Leia looks down at her bowl. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--" 

Anakin shakes his head quickly. "No, don't be. That was _me_ , in all my awfulness. I used to... _pretend_ , you know, _compartmentalize_ , putting aside everything from before I fell to the Dark Side and thinking of it as happening to another person, 'the Jedi'." He grimaces. "That way I didn't have to always _feel_ things like...grief for Padmé, horror at what I'd done to her and what I _thought_ I'd done to our child..." He rubs his eyes and continues in a hoarse whisper, "I killed _younglings,_ Leia, they saw my _face_ when I'd just turned, I looked just like _this_ , and they _trusted_ me. I was on the Jedi _Council,_ I was a _war hero,_ they thought I was there to take them to _safety_." He shudders. "Instead, I _murdered_ them."

Leia doesn't know what to say, so she lays her hand on his. 

Anakin looks up at his daughter. "Don't do that. I don't deserve forgiveness or absolution or even comfort. I _killed_ your _mother_ , I don't even _know_ how you and Luke survived that. And I need to live with-- _exist_ with--knowing that I can be _that_ terrible. That I _have_ been the worst person in the galaxy."

Leia half smiles. " _Second_ worst. And this," she squeezes his hand, "isn't any of those things. Maybe a _little_ bit of comfort. Mostly a reminder that, awful as you have been--extremely--you have a daughter who _sees_ you, the worst and the best of you. And the worst of you is _dreadful_ , and the best of you is _sublime_. Doing good doesn't erase all the evil you've done, but the evil doesn't negate the good, either."

Anakin looks at Leia, smiling sadly. "You're not ashamed to be the daughter of Darth Vader?" 

Leia shakes her head firmly. "I'm _proud_ to be the daughter of Bail Organa, _and_ Queen Breha, _and_ Padmé Amidala, and. _.. General_ Anakin Skywalker."

He half smiles. "It's a good thing you don't go by Skywalker after all. Otherwise, centuries from now, that would be really confusing to historians. 'Wait, there was a General Skywalker in the Clone Wars, _and_ one in the Resistance??'" 

Leia mimics the silly gesture she's seen Poe and some of the other young people do when they're astonished. "' _Really_? Mind blown!' Let's _do_ consider the future historians here. Although they'll be just as shocked when they realize, 'General Organa of the Resistance was the _daughter_ of General Skywalker of the Clone Wars! _And_ of Senator Amidala and Senator Organa who founded the Alliance!'"

Anakin copies the gesture. "'Mind! Blown!'" He smiles proudly. "My _daughter_ , the _General_."

Leia smiles and stands. "I've been advised by a fellow General that I should sit in _that_ chair. Even wearing my food as I am."

Anakin stands as well, edging himself out of the chair. "Then allow me, _General Organa_." He gestures grandly to the chair, and it scrapes ever so slightly against the floor as it moves perhaps a millimeter.

"What are you _doing?"_ Leia demands. 

"Using the Force--not _using_. More like... bending?" He frowns. "The way gravity bends space."

"You're _part of_ the Force. You can't _use_ the Force if you _are_ the Force."

"We're _all_ part of the Force. Living beings, dead Jedi, plants, animals, rocks, stars. Ships. Noodles. Everything."

"Spare me the lecture." 

He nods, gesturing with his mechanical hand for emphasis. "So, as _part of_ the Force, I can find a path _in_ the Force that leads to...whatever it is I need to do, and then just...bend it that way."

"And what is it that you _need_ to do?" she asks sharply. "Are we talking about moving a chair, or are we talking about strangling people?" She hooks the chair with her foot and pulls it out enough to sit down. 

"We're talking about _whatever you need,_ Leia. Your ship breaks down? I'll fix the hyperdrive. Or show you how to. Someone points a blaster at you? Their aim won't be true. Thermal detonator? Disarmed."

"Why?" 

"Why what?" 

"You're going to, what, _haunt_ me non-stop, just to protect me?" 

"Well, _yeah_." He shrugs as if this should be self evident. "What _else_ would I do?" 

Leia shrugs back. "Be _dead_? Stalk Luke? Talk sense into Ben? I don't know, take up gardening?" 

Anakin makes a face. "Ugh, no thanks. _Gardening._ It's too much like _farming."_ He shudders. "Luke shut himself off from the Force, I can't reach him. Ben, I've tried, but I'm blocked." He frowns. "It's a weird situation there. And, well, being dead is _boring_. You're interesting, I _love_ you, and, let's face it, you're up against ridiculous odds, and if there's anything _I_ can do to help you succeed or at least survive..."

Leia scoffs. "Just what I needed, an invisible, immaterial, former Imperial, _easily bored_ bodyguard." She tries to scowl, but a smile tugs at her lips. "One that the entire Resistance would probably hate and distrust."

"Not the _entire_ Resistance," he objects with a tiny smile. "I hear that _General Organa_ sometimes thinks I'm kind of okay."

Leia laughs. " _Sometimes._ And--oh, hello, there." She smiles warmly at the young blonde woman who approaches. "You're Kaydel Ko Connix, right? Do you go by Kaydel?" 

"Yes, uh, am I interrupting something?" she asks nervously. 

"Oh, no, I was just chastising myself about wearing my dinner," Leia tells her, gesturing to the sauce splattered on her tunic. "I try to look like a respectable General, and then _this_ happens."

Kaydel giggles nervously. "I can go--" 

Leia shakes her head. "No, no, stay. I wanted to get to know you anyway, I've seen you around but we've never talked. Where are you from, again?" 

Anakin grins and gives Leia a ridiculously overdone double thumbs up, whispering, "My daughter! The _General!"_


End file.
